This essay, long a classic and only now translated into Italian, constitutes an essential reference for the problem of scientific creativity. The result of the reflections of one of the greatest mathematical minds of the twentieth century, it is nourished by a constant direct and indirect dialogue with some of the greatest thinkers, scientists and artists: Poincaré, Einstein, Bergson, Valéry, James, Elmholtz, Bernard, Polya, Galton, de Broglie and others. Jacques Hadamard (1865 - 1963), the initiator of modern functional analysis, made fundamental contributions to numerous fields of mathematics.

Jacques Solomon Hadamard (1865-1963) was a French mathematician, best known for his proof of the prime number theorem, which he proved in 1896.